BUILDING BIGGER During the late 1800s cities became crowded with people Space became expensive and scarce Builders solved the problem by building taller buildings The first skyscraper was built in Chicago in 1885 It had ten floors Over time new technology made it possible to build taller structures By 2017 the world’s tallest building was the Burj Khalifa It is in Dubai United Arab Emirates The tower stands 2,716 feet 828 m tall It has 163 floors The Burj Khalifa was designed by the same architecture firm that worked on One World Trade Center Skyscrapers are extremely tall buildings Their dozens of floors are used for apartments or office space One World Trade Center has 104 floors It is one of five buildings in the 16-acre 6 5-ha World Trade Center complex At the building’s base water gently cascades down 30 feet 9 1 m into two memorial pools The pools mark the sites where the two former World Trade Center towers once stood These buildings were called the Twin Towers A terrorist attack destroyed them on September 11 2001 6
The huge memorial pools help visitors appreciate the enormous size of the former Twin Towers The planning and building of One World Trade Center was a long complicated process Construction began in 2006 The tower finally opened for business in 2014 One World Trade Center is a masterpiece of architecture and engineering The building’s square base is covered in angled pieces of glass The structure 7
seems to twist as it rises into eight long triangles The triangles form an octagon in the tower’s cross section halfway up At the roof they form another square A communications ring sits at the very top It holds broadcasting equipment A 408-foot 124-m spire points upward into the sky MIXING FORM AND FUNCTION One World Trade Center’s designers wanted more than just a beautiful structure The new building had to be strong safe and energy efficient It had PERSPECTIVES REMEMBERING AND REBUILDING After the collapse of the Twin Towers New Yorkers faced a difficult decision Some people wanted to rebuild the Twin Towers But some families of the victims did not want anything built where their loved ones had died Eventually all sides reached an agreement New buildings would be constructed A memorial and museum would honor the lives that had been lost The tower’s spire brings the building to its 1,776-foot 541-m height 9
